


Words Spoken In Wormwood

by Syntax



Category: DragonFable (Video Games)
Genre: Alcohol, Character Discussion, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Character Death, In-Universe Speculation, Other, Rumors, gender neutral hero
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-17
Updated: 2018-10-17
Packaged: 2019-08-03 17:41:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16330634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Syntax/pseuds/Syntax
Summary: Among the bars in Swordhaven, there was an unspoken rule: if you serve Rose members, you don't let anything they say leave the building.So when one night at the bar, a few Rose members were discussing some secrets regarding one of their own—Well.  Go ahead and ask anyone who was there that night.That conversation never happened.





	Words Spoken In Wormwood

**Author's Note:**

> i feel like i didn't do a good enough job conveying why the rose are so interested in amadeus's love life or why the marks he left on hero post-fuckening are so important, but honestly i just wanted this thing to be done.
> 
> this was inspired by a conversation with a friend. while there's no way that the rose knows who/what amaedus really is—there's no way they haven't noticed there's some weird shit going on with him. and so this fic was born.

Among the bars in Swordhaven, there was an unspoken rule: if you serve Rose members, you don't let anything they say leave the building.

Sure, letting patrons vent their worries to their friends and bartenders in peace without having to fear their worries would come back to them at a later date from a spouse or a coworker or maybe even a knight holding a warrant was an unspoken rule in many bars. But ever since a few years back when bartenders in the city started disappearing after some soldiers in Rose uniforms went down for a drink, bartenders that they all knew weren't magical and had no reason to leave—

Well, spilling secrets to the wrong person might not have been the exact reason behind it, but it was as good a reason as any. And maybe if a few Rose members disappeared in that time too, well that just gave everyone even more reason to keep their mouths shut.

So the rule was put into place: if you serve Rose members, don't let anything they say leave the building, and you'll be fine. You'll be safe.

The rule spread from bartender to bar owner to pool shark to patron to people on the street.

Just follow the rules. You'll be safe.

So when one night at the bar, a few Rose members were discussing some secrets regarding one of their own—

Well. Go ahead and ask anyone who was there that night.

That conversation never happened.

* * *

A glass clinked down hard on the counter top. "So, Amadeus right?"

There'd been chatter in the bar until then. Rose members and civilians alike talking about their day, their worries. Some civilians were asking what it was like in the organization. Some Rose were trying to convince the civilians to join. Some others of both or neither groups were just talking to their friends or otherwise trying to drink in peace.

All of that came to a halt when that first clear voice rang out in the bar, just a little over comfortable conversation volume.

You don't talk about Amadeus.

That's another rule.

A few of the more senior Rose members, people who've been with the organization for long enough to meet the man, people with positions to keep and things to lose, slapped some coins on the counter and headed out. Even if word doesn't leave the bar, some things are just better left unsaid.

They wouldn't be the only ones leaving the bar tonight. But they were the smart ones.

The ones that stayed weren't.

"What _about_ Amadeus?" grumbled one of the Rose patrons. A manahunter. No patches on his uniform, no tarnish on his silver. A bud among the blooms, one of the newer recruits that didn't know why he should follow all the rules yet.

The first speaker grinned, wide and feral now that he'd gotten an audience to listen to his story.

"Treated his beau up at the hospital earlier today. Lacerations all along the back, punctures on the neck and shoulders. Lot of heavy bruises too, but you can't do much about those. Almost needed treatment myself after putting stitches on every one of them." The speaker paused, swirling his drink in his hand as he removed it from the counter. "Not a scratch on him though."

And suddenly, almost as if by the very magic that they despised, sound came back to the bar. Whistles or murmurs from those in the know. Swears. Invocations of the Lords or Avatars. A few of them, the civilians, asked their Rose friends what the significance of that might have been, and were politely told that maybe they should forget about it and leave. Some did. Some were smart. Some chose correctly.

"Wait, the creepy guy with the pink hair? What's that about?" asked one, who was not and did not. He'd just moved to Swordhaven a few weeks ago, and the fact that he even knew who Amadeus was did not speak well for his chances of remaining undisappeared in the foreseeable future.

His unwilling companion, a dour-faced woman in her forties who'd only come to forget about the day and already knew the night wasn't going to end well, simply buried her face into her drink and said "Who wants to tell him?"

An uncomfortable silence swept through the Rose that had been making noise again.

You follow the rules. You don't talk about Amadeus. You'll be safe.

A sharp intake of breath turned a few heads to a mousy woman in an energizer uniform. A few patches here and there, a few scuffs on her leathers. She knew better. But she talked anyways.

"We're pretty sure Amadeus isn't human," she said. A shudder left her as soon as the words did, heavy and harsh. The Rose around her politely pretended not to notice.

"So? You guys have plenty of people that aren't human," the civilian pressed on, fool that he was.

"The key word in that sentence," said the manahunter, immediately before slamming back the rest of his drink and glaring out into space as if reality itself had offended him, "is _people._ "

That was one of the first things you learn in the Rose after you hear his name.

The rumors. The observations.

Amadeus wasn't human. He couldn't be human. Not with everything they knew about him.

As far as the rank and file knew, Amadeus was a monster wearing a human face.

And people who speak ill of monsters don't last very long in their company.

"We don't... Actually know what he is. All our magic detectors have to be recalibrated to ignore him because he's just _covered_ in illusions." The energizer continued. "Like. Layers and Layers of the stuff. You can see through a few of them if you try really hard, but..."

There was silence. The Rose in the room all knew the story.

You can peer through Amadeus's illusions all you want—but no one but Lady Jaania has ever seen through all of them.

The energizer continued, shakily.

"The story goes that he's got a really nasty injury, or—or a curse or something he's covering up that he needs our facilities to cure, and he's willing to help us in exchange for their use, but—"

"But there's a lot of _really weird shit_ about him that an injury just doesn't explain," the manahunter cut in bitterly.

The first speaker, a Rose wearing healer's robes still stained with blood from his shift at the hospital, counted off on his fingers the more common rumors regarding the enigmatic head of research. "He always ducks through doorways, even the ones he should be able to clear no problem. He's a lot heavier and stronger than a man his size and build should be..."

"He doesn't eat or rest, ever, or if he does it's in a public place where everyone can see him," the manahunter grumbled.

"He's cold to the touch, not matter how hot it is," the energizer said quietly into her drink.

"He doesn't blink," supplied another, different manahunter, lounging at the end of the bar. "'Least if he does, I've never seen it."

"He bent a metal table once by gripping it too hard."

"Sometimes his eyes glow red."

"Like a third of our mana sensors can't be in the same room as him or they start screaming."

"Half the time he walks into a room, you can feel the temperature drop."

"There's this little girl that follows him around sometimes... I don't know if she's his daughter or something, but she creeps me out."

"One of our girls used to be a paladin and when she asked him to hold her sword real quick while she did something his hand started smoking."

"What? No way, I haven't heard anything like that!"

"It's true! Agapanthus told me, and he never lies about anything!"

"Agapanthus is blind in one eye!"

"So?!"

"Wait, hold on everyone," the civilian exclaimed, waving his arms around like the madman he surely was in an effort to silence the sudden uproar of Rose all chiming in their stories, firsthand or not, true or not, of the strange man in their midst that answered only to Lady Jaania herself. "What does this all have to do with that guy then? And who's this 'Beau' or whoever?!"

The medic sipped his drink, a not-quite-amused smirk on his face. The energizer fidgeted in her seat. The manahunters exchanged glances. A few straggling Rose in the back quietly paid their tab and left, hoping that would be enough to save them.

"It's that 'Hero' kook from Falconreach, innit?" offered the dour-faced woman. She didn't wear a Rose's uniform, but the colors were emblazoned quite proudly on her collar. An off duty agent perhaps? A supporter? She knew more than a civilian should, in any case. "With the dragon. Always hanging around, pestering the Lady... Ain't they supposed to be fuckin' or something?"

The energizer slapped a handful of coins on the counter and practically ran out of the bar, the scraping of her chair against the wooden floors deafening in the now nearly-silent room.

One of the manahunters shrugged. "So the story goes," he said loosely. "Well. Story. It was more of a joke than anything else, how they're always up in each other's business all the time. They've got _somethin'_ going on, I know that much, whether it's fuckin' or somethin' else."

"So the story goes," the medic repeated, that not-quite-amused smile still on his face, "But I imagine the story would've mentioned something if Amadeus turned out to be the kinda guy that likes to _bite._ "

Off in the distance, one of the few patrons that hadn't had the sense to leave earlier choked on their drink, loudly coughing and gagging as the Rose at the bar stared at the medic in various stages of horror and dawning comprehension. No one reacted to the noise.

"You... Said there were punctures," stated a researcher further down the counter. He spoke slowly, something on his face that could have been fear, could have been grim acceptance. He'd been silent up until now, following the rules, keeping his nose out of things. But a man can only withstand so much temptation before breaking. "Ones that needed stitches. Human bites don't usually need stitches."

"Human bites aren't usually so deep."

The researcher made a noise like a dying animal. " _The lacerations?_ "

"Imagine you had a blade at the tip of every finger, and then—" The medic wrapped his arms around an invisible lover, miming his hands into claws and slowly dragging them down what would be the lover's back.

The researched blanched. A few moments later he fell backwards off his seat, seeming to faint at whatever revelation he'd just had at the medic's implications. He landed with a dull thud on the cold wooden floor of the bar. No one got up to help him. The gagging of the Rose in the booths had stopped.

The manahunter at the other end of the counter eyed the medic with a strange humor. "You sure they didn't just get attacked by somethin'? Not discountin' yer story, but there's usually always another explanation."

"See, I probably would've agreed with you if it'd been anyone else, but the Hero came in my office with one arm over Amadeus for support and I'd know that limp _anywhere._ "

"Fuck," one of the few remaining Rose at the counter whispered. " _Fuck._ "

"Pretty sure that's what happened, yeah," the medic chimed in.

Somewhere off in one of the corners of the bar, a prayer to the Avatars could be heard. The civilian looked on in confusion, still not understanding any of what had been said. Not that that would save him.

"We're all going to die now, you know that, right?" said the dour-face woman.

"Oh, undoubtedly," said the medic, calmly downing the rest of his drink. "But _Lords_ , what a way to go."

* * *

Among the bars in Swordhaven, there was an unspoken rule: if you serve Rose members, you don't let anything they say leave the building.

Not everyone follows those rules.

There are secrets among the Rose, secrets that not even those within the Rose itself are privy to. And those that hold those secrets don't often like it when people go spilling them.

When an old bar suddenly closed down after some Rose soldiers went down for a drink, a bar that followed the rules, and a string of disappearances followed afterwards—

Well.

Go ahead. Ask anyone around who was nearby that night.

That conversation never happened.

That bar was never opened.


End file.
